This Tuesday the Federal Circuit ruled against an International Trade Commission (“ITC”) ban on imports of cell phone chips that allegedly infringed on a rival’s patent. The chips, made by Qualcomm Inc., contained technology that the ITC had previously held infringed on a patent owned by Broadcom Corp. In its ruling the court stated that the ITC lacked authority to ban such imports.

Report by the Associated Press available here. Coverage by Reuters is available here.

On Thursday, United Kingdom Home Secretary suggested legislation that would create a massive government database containing information on mobile phones and e-mail in order to combat terrorism. Information collected would include the location and identity of the parties communicating, but not the content of the communications themselves.

BBC offers more coverage of the controversy surrounding the proposal, which critiques have called “Orwellian.”

A UK court required defendants to offer the encryption key protecting a data disk that had been seized by police in a criminal investigation. Suspects were arrested for breaching an order under the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 2005. The court rejected their argument that disclosure would violate the privilege against self-incrimination, stating in its holding that an encryption key is no different than a physical key.